Examination of the cervix for cancer and viral infections are done now with a device called a colposcope. This device is a binocular microscope which is placed near the patient. It supplies a bright light, (white light and green light) and the operator looks through the eyepieces of the colposcope much like looking through field glasses. This is done with a vaginal speculum in place. Some of the devices have camera attachments for still picture photography. The physician looks at the tissue looking for whitened areas after treatment with 3-5% acetic acid. The acetic acid whitens tissue which is low in mucous, such as cancer cells. The physician also looks for clusters of blood vessels which may indicate new growth such as cancer. The effectiveness of this colposcopy procedure is only 85%, and this is with a very experienced physician doing the procedure. Also, the colposcope is difficult to use because of its size and weight.
Over the years various vaginal speculae have been developed. Among these are the following:
Casaneda U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,133 discloses a vaginal speculum having a microscope mounted thereon which has a light source for illumination and is longitudinally adjustable for focusing.
VanDerBel U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,383 discloses a vaginal speculum having optical fiber illumination means attached thereto.
Burgin U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,792 has an adjustable speculum with an incorporated light system.
Walsh U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,248 discloses a light attachment for a speculum.
Wider et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,832 illustrates in FIG. 6 a fiberoptic light pipe installed in the lower jaw of the vaginal speculum.
Burgin U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,468 has an adjustable speculum with an incorporated lighting system.
Whitman U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,835 discloses an illuminating attachment for vaginal speculum.
Stafl U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,570 has a diagnostic method of projecting the image of a cervix photograph onto a screen. However, the camera is not mounted to the speculum.
Hasson U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,829 discloses a radium applicator mounted to a vaginal speculum.
Walden et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,505 discloses a speculum with a spray tube carried by a jaw of the speculum.
Tanikawa et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,558 discloses an endoscopic photographing apparatus applicable to all types of endoscopes and uses thereof.
Toyota et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,210 discloses an endoscope for observing the interior of a cavity in a human body with the image displayed on a TV screen.
The last two patents are representative of many observation techniques available for use with endoscopes.
None of these devices have served to increase the detection rate of cancer and the early treatment thereof.